Sweet Pear Cake {gluten-free, vegan}

I went a little crazy a few weeks back and bought a 5-pound bag of Bartlett pears. I already had four ripening pears left in the fruit basket before buying this bag too. I was on a pear kick, I guess.

I got a ton of great ideas from all of you on Facebook with suggestions on what to do with all these pears.

Then one morning I felt like baking a cake and I decided pears would be what the cake was made of.

I found the recipe from AllRecipes.com and adjusted it to be gluten-free and vegan. The result of my adjustments made for a dense but moist cake that had a nicely textured crumb without falling apart. You’ll want to keep this cake covered with plastic wrap so it doesn’t dry out though.

The original recipe did not call for any seasoning like cinnamon or nutmeg or whatever seasoning you’d think would make sense in a dark fruity cake like this. I was a bit hesitant and considered adding some ground ginger and cinnamon, but at the last minute – mostly out of curiosity – decided to forgo adding any spices to mine too. Shockingly it tastes very good without anything added. I still might add some ground ginger next time just for fun, but if you’re using nice and ripe pears you won’t need anything because the flavor of the pears really does come through beautifully.

In these photos I’ve frosted the cake with a basic vegan buttercream but it really doesn’t need to be iced. It has a sweetness of it’s own that you don’t need to dress up with icing. But because I loved how dark the cake was and how bright white the icing was, I decided to ice it. Weird reasoning, I know.

I’d like to take a quick second to give another mention of my new cookbook Gluten Free & Vegan Family Feasts which is available for download here. I’m extending the introductory promo code until December 24th so you can save $4. Just use the promo code ‘greateats’ at the checkout.

Thanks a bunch!

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Comments

I made this cake as directed. The flavor was awesome and the pear really comes through. However, the top and bottom of the cake were tough and chewy. I am wondering if that is because the vegetable oil was omitted from the original recipe. Did you leave it off the ingredient list on purpose?

Wow that’s a big omission on my part Bree and I’m so sorry. Truthfully, it’s been a long time since I first made this recipe and I honestly don’t remember if I left the oil out intentionally. I don’t think so! What was the batter like without the oil? It must have been basically unspreadable though! I guess I will have to remake this right away to make sure what the measurements are.